I live in NYC and the majority of its public schools are not up to par with the rest of world, let alone the other states.

It is particularly challenging for NYC's public school system to perform well because of the extremely diverse student body. Different students with different interests require different teaching methods, support methods, and extracurricular activities to become successful students.

Unfortunately, when a student is in seventh grade and eighth grade, about 12 years old, the typical age when students look at high schools in NYC, he or she is not extremely interested in the high school search. On average, the prospective student will not research the high school to learn about its graduation rates, average test scores, college placements, and other important factors.

If education systems with diverse student bodies were to adapt a voucher system, many of the current dilemmas that immediately suppress the schools and their bodies would vanish.

Firstly, in a voucher system, high schools would immediately begin to strongly market themselves to prospective students. High schools would advertise the aforementioned factors, along with its curriculum, its extracurricular opportunities, potential research opportunities, etc.

Different high schools would appeal to a different type of student, such as a logical student, a creative student, an athletic student, etc. These schools would be able to hire the very best teachers that they can to provide the best learning environment for their students because they have been able to enroll a group of students that are interested in similar subjects, yet have unique qualities that enable a colorful student body.

Public schools would also be much easier to start. For example, a graduate could start his or her own school if he or she wanted to; however, he or she will have to follow fundamental rules and regulations set forth by the education system to get accredited.

However, immediately, the education system would see several schools fail simultaneously, and that's good. Failing schools should fail. The good teachers leaving these failed schools could then work at successful high schools.

Another question that may arise is if no high school accepts a child. To explain this, let's look at cars. In the auto industry, there are several categories of vehicles, but for the sake of simplicity, let's categorize them in three ways: low-end, mid-end, and high-end. All consumers want, and may need, a car to transport them to work, school, and other miscellaneous events and activities. However, not everyone can afford Porsche do accomplish these tasks, so they buy a mid-end or a low-end car, such as a Chevy. Now, what's the most competitive tier for cars? While there is an ample amount of competition for the high-end cars, there is an overwhelming amount of competition for the mid-end and low-end tiers for cars. Today, even the high-end car companies are trying to appeal to the mid-end and low-end tiers. You will see a similar pattern in education. While the high-end public schools will continue to be competitive to get a student to submit an application, the most competitive schools would be the low-end and mid-end schools.

The fundamental difference between a private school and a public school in this system is that a private school can charge more money if it wishes, while a public school cannot raise tuition; it can only accept the voucher as payment.

I do support a voucher system for private schools. As to your concern with children not getting accepted into any schools, I dont see this happening. Of ourse some schools will be competitive to get into. However, with this, there will also be schools that will accept anyone who wants to go to that school as long as the school gets paid. I have actually seen this first hand.

What you are advocating is a system that begins to segregate high schoolers by ability and interest. Japan has a system very similar to that.

The only issue is that the schools and their offerings need to be built first. Vouchers without the a multitude of offerings would just overwhelm the top notch schools.

As I understand there is a very good charter school in NYC that is 80% Asians because they take who ever does best on some sort of entrance exam.

As far as I'm concerned elite high schools are fantastic as long as we have technical high schools for those who for what ever reason can not compete at that level.

Could you imagine in the 11th grade going to a school that focuses on a specific career rather than generic learning? I guarantee some of these inter city areas that hardly graduate 50% of students would get a huge bump in graduation rates.